Subtitle: The Sugar Princess of the Apple Country
Once upon a time, there was a country called Grandhill. Grandhill was also called the Apple Country. No, it would be more accurate to say that the name Grandhill appeared only in official documents, and that all neighboring countries called it the Apple Country. Anyone could understand at once why the country was called Apple: the apples grown there were more delicious than those of any other country. In fact, the surrounding countries grew a great deal of wheat, but this country had many mountains, so it could not grow crops that required flat land. Instead, it exchanged various fruits for rice, other grains, and other fruits.
The Apple Country did grow many kinds of fruit, but the greatest achievement belonged to the late king, who had succeeded in bringing out sweetness in apples in particular. King Zerenbulin, who was even known in neighboring countries as the Apple King, planted dozens of apple trees in the palace courtyard and spent his life conducting different experiments on each tree. At last, he succeeded in producing delicious apples, and ordered that all apples in the country be grown according to his secret method.
At first, there seemed to be little effect. Farmers had to follow strict instructions with the same income, so they did so with tears in their eyes. The amount of apples produced did not seem to change much, nor did the taste. But one year after the king died and Zerenbulin II ascended the throne, everything changed.
When Zerenbulin II came to the throne, the farmers tried to break the late king’s instructions. The royal family also needed to suppress such attempts. Apples were only the beginning; no one knew what royal rules they might try to change next. After countless deliberations, the royal court decided that since the matter had begun with apples, it should end with apples. If that failed, they would ultimately have to use force. So they announced a plan to receive apples from each farmland, choose representatives, and grant various privileges.
On the day of the ceremony commemorating the third year of Zerenbulin II’s reign, a contest of sixty apple varieties from all over the country was held in the palace courtyard. Representatives from sixty farmlands gathered for the tasting, and each ate and evaluated apples from other regions. And then the farmer representatives who had gathered to evaluate them realized how delicious their country’s apples had become, and how evenly the quality had risen.
After more than four hours of discussion, the farmers decided to submit a statement to the royal court instead of an evaluation sheet. The statement consisted of three parts: that they would take responsibility for blocking resistance against Zerenbulin I, that they would pledge absolute loyalty to the royal house after Zerenbulin II, and that, when it came to apple cultivation, the royal court must take responsibility for preventing the secrets from being leaked to neighboring countries. In this way, the Apple Country became a country specialized in apples in name and reality.
At that time, transportation was limited, and the population was not large, so one country was about the size of a city today. In an area the size of one country, there could be dozens or hundreds of countries. After walking for several days, one would reach a neighboring country. That made it difficult to keep secrets. So the farmers demanded that, although they would keep secrets among themselves, the country should punish traitors where their own efforts were not enough.
The royal court designated apples as the country’s specialty product and mascot. Not only apple trees, but even apples themselves, could no longer leave the country except in boxes sealed with paper bearing the royal crest. This became the symbol of Grandhill’s apples among neighboring countries, and the country could export less than half the quantity of apples it had exported before and still import enough wheat to feed the entire population for years.
But Zerenbulin II had no queen. His daughter was being raised by maids, but the queen had died long ago, and the country hastily revised its system so that a daughter too could inherit the throne if designated by the royal family. Still, they hoped he would take a new queen and have a son.
In the eighth year of Zerenbulin II’s reign, when the princess was twelve, he decided to take a queen. She was the eldest daughter of the Pine Mountain family, which owned the largest apple orchard. She was a woman whom everyone considered fit to be queen, full not only of knowledge about apples but also of cultivation. Her refinement did not show itself as learned knowledge, but through actions guided by wisdom; her concern for others came out as manners. Of course, she was beautiful too, but the king found it especially desirable that she would not require separate court education. Court education was then in the middle of being reorganized for the princess’s education as a ruler, amid endless debates, and the king wanted to avoid anything that might prolong those debates.
After coming by palanquin from the Pine Mountain house, she went through the wedding and then the queen’s investiture, two separate ceremonies lasting six hours in total. Only after that could the queen meet the princess. The only things she had brought from home were a few cosmetics and an empty picture frame. After hanging the empty frame on the wall and placing her cosmetics on the dressing table, the queen sent a maid to call the princess.
Knock, knock.
The princess had come.
“Come in.”
The princess opened the door and entered. For a twelve-year-old girl, she was far too fat, and her face was covered in acne. The queen, feeling affection for the daughter she had gained for the first time, called her close and hugged her tightly. Then she told the princess to call her mother now. Since she came from commoner stock, the princess did not have to call her by such stiff court titles, she said.
But the sulking princess barely answered, then took out a pouch, opened it, and put a sugar cube into her mouth. The queen instantly realized that the princess had so much acne because she ate too much sugar. She said, “It seems you are eating too much sugar. Give me that pouch now, and let us reduce it little by little. You have sugar in your room too, don’t you?” and took the pouch away. Then the princess, rudely, shouted, “You witch!” and ran out of the room.
But the queen cared for her daughter and had already made up her mind to make her beautiful so that she would be loved by the people. She called a painter and had him paint a portrait of the princess without acne, then placed it in the empty frame she had brought and hung it up. She had intended to put in a family portrait with the king, but her pity for the princess was too great.
One day, seeing that the acne had disappeared much more than before, the queen realized that if the princess completely gave up sugar, she would become truly beautiful. If simply reducing it a little had made her that pretty, then surely it was so. So she went to the princess’s room and found all the sugar the princess had hidden in her desk, drawers, shelves, and wardrobe. She put it all in a container and ordered it placed in the kitchen. But not everyone approved of this forced method. The kitchen maids were on the princess’s side too.
“Your Majesty, it is presumptuous of us to say this, but taking away what the princess likes in such a forceful way seems very bad at this adolescent age. Continuing to reduce it little by little, as you have been doing, may require patience, but is patience not something adults should have a little more of? Our princess likes sugar cubes, especially white sugar cubes, so much that her nickname is even Princess White Sugar, Princess Snow Sugar. If you try to make her quit sugar all at once, we cannot imagine how great her resistance will be. If worry comes to the royal house, it becomes worry for the country. Please reconsider.”
But such a plea could not shake the queen. Above all, the princess’s education was the queen’s foremost duty, for she firmly believed that even if she bore a prince, it would be right to place the princess on the throne first.
That evening, after dinner and tea time had ended, screams echoed through the palace. The princess was screaming and tearing her room apart. As she cried and screamed, rummaging through every drawer and shelf as if ripping them apart, she was like a fierce cat. When the queen, startled by the screams, reached the princess’s door, she found the maids too frightened to step inside, and the princess striking a window with a chair in an attempt to break it. Unable to bear it, the queen shouted:
“What are you doing!”
The princess only glared at her and kept striking the window without answering. The queen said sternly:
“That is enough. Stop now and sleep. Sleep, and we will talk after you wake.”
But the princess said:
“You came to the palace to kill me, didn’t you? You demon!”
And she kept striking the window. At last, with an ear-splitting crash, the window collapsed. The princess, still not changed into her nightclothes, ran straight outside. Her room was on the third floor, but because the building was built on a hill, it only looked like the third floor from the front; from the princess’s room, it was only a little higher than the first floor.
“Come back here!”
The queen shouted, but it was already too late. By the time the queen jumped down through the window after her, the princess had disappeared into the forest. The queen thought she had probably climbed over the wall in the woods. Hearing the screams, all the guards had rushed toward the building, so none of them had seen the princess.
The queen thought the princess would appear the next morning. She was ill-mannered, but not wicked, so the queen thought she would apologize. But even on the third day, the princess did not appear.
Worried, the queen called a hunter she knew through the Pine Mountain family. The hunter was famous for knowing every forest in the country, so she thought he would easily find the princess.
Two or three hours after the maid sent by the queen arrived at Pine Mountain, the hunter came there to sell game. As he was leaving after receiving his money, the maid called him.
“You there.”
“Do you mean me?”
“The queen is looking for you.”
“Is it because the princess is said to have disappeared?”
“It is. Say nothing and follow me.”
“Understood.”
At the palace entrance, the hunter laid down his bow, arrows, and knife. Even the fur decorations were inspected one by one, so he was delayed several hours longer than the queen had expected. When at last he followed the maid into the queen’s room, the queen was standing before her dressing table. Missing the princess, she looked at the framed portrait and said to herself:
“Who is the fairest in the world? Of course, Snow Sugar is.”
Then the maid said:
“Your Majesty, I will bring in the hunter.”
The hunter paid little attention to anything else and asked directly:
“Your Majesty, am I to find the princess?”
“Yes. You need only find where she is. I will reward you generously.”
“Understood. Where should I send word when I find her?”
“Send word to the Pine Mountain house. That will be enough.”
“Yes, Your Majesty. I will take my leave.”
At the time the hunter left the queen’s room, the princess was in a hut in the mountains. It was the home of someone who cared for people injured while cutting trees. Inside were five or six people lying down with missing arms or legs. There were also five or six others who had come after hearing rumors of the healer’s skill. The healer and his maid were so busy they could hardly look up. They examined the patients, gathered herbs, or brewed the herbs they had. Then they saw the princess standing silently inside the hut. The healer did not yet know the princess had left the palace, and because her lace-trimmed clothes had already become dirty from wandering through the mountains, he did not think she was a princess or someone of high status. He said:
“Child, come here and hold this piece of cloth.”
The princess opened her eyes wide and shouted:
“You fool, do you want to die?”
The healer was briefly startled and could say nothing. Then he said to the maid:
“She seems to be a child with something wrong in her head. Take her to the kitchen and give her one pill.”
The pill in the kitchen was a sugar cube. Sometimes, when people with disturbed minds or wild dogs came, they would give them a sugar cube and then drive them away once their mood improved a little.
After eating the sugar cube, the princess quickly felt better. Smiling, she looked around, and when the healer told her to hold something, she held it; when he told her to press, she pressed, helping with the treatment.
By evening, although the food tasted bad, the sugar cubes were delicious, so she was able to sleep well. She could not eat as many sugar cubes as she wanted, but the healer had honestly told her that this was a remote place and there were not many sugar cubes, so she had to eat them sparingly, but he would let her have them all to herself, so she need not worry.
Before even entering the mountains, the hunter heard from people nearby that a pockmarked girl in lace-trimmed clothes had appeared at the healer’s hut. Thinking it might be the princess, the hunter went to the Pine Mountain house first and reported it before going to see for himself. Until he was told to go and confirm it, he decided not to cause trouble needlessly.
Just as the hunter was cleaning a rabbit and a deer he had caught, the queen’s maid came and delivered a message.
“The queen says there is something she wants to confirm. There is no need for you to go back and see. After she confirms it, she will probably go herself. Time is urgent, so do not waste time over clothes. Come now.”
The hunter thought that since blood had splattered on him while he cleaned the rabbit and deer, this was somewhat too much, but the maid’s expression was so stern that he followed immediately.
The queen asked about the princess’s appearance and clothes. When the hunter described her in such detail that the princess seemed to be before her eyes, he shouted:
“That is right. It seems to be the princess. There is no doubt!”
The queen immediately told the maid to prepare for an outing. Since it was the mountains, she could not take a palanquin, but the same guards had to be maintained. Hearing that it would take about ten minutes for the guards to gather in front of the palace, the queen said, “I will be down within that time, so go ahead and prepare.” Thinking it might take time to persuade the princess, she removed the princess’s portrait from the wall and placed it in a bag. In its place, she hung the mirror that had originally been there.
At that time, strange movements were taking place at the Pine Mountain house. Because maids from the palace kept coming and going, rumors spread nearby that the palace might be giving special favors to Pine Mountain apples. All apples in Grandhill were supposed to be gathered equally, judged equally, packed according to grade, and exported. But rumors said that Pine Mountain apples might be receiving a preliminary screening. Of course, it was all speculation, but because the maid could not speak about the princess’s escape, there was no rebuttal.
Then, in Goldstream, a servant was caught trying to smuggle an apple branch across the border. What threw the whole country into turmoil was that, while being arrested, he shouted at the top of his lungs, “Of course I would do this, when they buy Pine Mountain apples at such high prices and buy ours for scraps!” It was a story that did not exist at all. He was later found to have lied and was executed, but by then it was already too late.
The rumor that Pine Mountain was receiving special favors spread rapidly throughout Grandhill. Along with it spread the rumor that Zerenbulin II would never have done such a thing, and that the queen must have seduced him into it.
The queen arrived at the healer’s hut and met the princess. The treatment room had been cleared, and the patients were resting under a tent bearing the royal crest, eating porridge hastily prepared by the royal household. Sitting across from the princess in the treatment room, the queen said:
“Princess, keep your dignity. What is the meaning of this?”
“You told me to call you mother instead of Your Majesty, didn’t you? You acted friendly, and now you try to tame me with food? Am I an animal?”
“I am not taming you. I am educating you. You will one day receive and rule this country. If so, this Apple Country may become not an apple country for you, but a poisoned apple.”
“So now you are cursing me to eat a poisoned apple. You start a quarrel first, and instead of apologizing, you threaten me too?”
“You may not want to hear it, but there is no help for that. You began your education as a ruler late, so this may be expected. But once you take the throne, your ministers too will say many things you do not want to hear. You cannot run out of the palace each time, can you?”
“I did not leave because of ministers. I left because of you! You were trying to feed me a poisoned apple!”
After shouting as much as she could, the princess returned to the palace. Because it was a mountain where she had often played as a child, she knew the way from there to the palace well. It had taken the queen and her procession three hours to reach the hut, but the princess reached the palace in one.
When she escaped, she had climbed over the wall. When she returned, she entered proudly through the main gate. Seeing the princess with her dirty face and frayed dress, the people and the guards were all speechless. When everyone began whispering, the princess shouted:
“Do not whisper behind my back! Is the royal family so ridiculous? It must be ridiculous when the queen tells the princess to eat a poisoned apple!”
After saying that, the princess went into the palace, and the people were shaken. Rumors began to spread that the queen had blocked the king’s eyes and ears to give favors to the Pine Mountain house, and not only that, but had tried to kill the princess and pass the throne to her own child.
Two days later, the king summoned a council. In the court where the king and ministers gathered, the queen and princess also sat. At the end, all the servants and maids who worked in the palace gathered as well. Amid the tense atmosphere, the king opened his mouth.
“I hear everyone has a great deal to say. Speak.”
Brown Pleasde, the oldest among the ministers, spoke.
“The reason I still assist the royal house at this age is that the royal house values my opinion and will not let me go. In gratitude for such high regard, I cannot help but speak. Among the people, words that should never exist are now flying wildly. Since Her Majesty the queen of the Pine Mountain house stands at the center of all those rumors, Your Majesty must clarify the matter and end everything today.”
“I have heard the rumors roughly. The ministers must know that the princess left the palace. It was because of that that a maid went in and out of Pine Mountain. But the royal house cannot run around everywhere so crudely, can it? Let us understand it that way and settle the matter here.”
“Your Majesty, this is not a matter that can be calmed so easily. They say that Her Majesty practices sorcery. That part does not vanish simply because we say it is not so. If it is false, we must root it out and find the person who said such a thing, and make an example of them.”
“That is the first I have heard of such a story. Who first said it?”
At that moment, one of the servants stepped forward hesitantly.
“Your Majesty, I think the story I told may have spread.”
“What did you say that led to talk of the queen practicing sorcery?”
The king was beginning to grow angry. The gentle expression he had worn at first was gone, and now the corners of his eyes were rising. Trembling with fear, the servant spoke.
“Some time after the princess disappeared, I was passing before the queen’s room while carrying luggage. A hunter had come to see the queen, and the door was open. Her Majesty asked the mirror who was the fairest in the world, and a woman’s voice from the mirror answered, Snow Sugar Princess. Wondering who it was, I dared to lift my face and look inside, and the mirror was showing the princess’s face. I was so frightened that I barely managed to carry away the luggage and ran.”
“Where was that mirror?”
“It was hanging on the pillar beside the dressing table.”
“Wasn’t the princess’s portrait hanging there? I believe I heard so last time.”
The queen thought, Ah, and answered:
“That is true, but when I went to see the princess, I took it down, so now a mirror is hanging there.”
“Why did you take down the princess’s picture when you went to see the princess?”
“I thought meeting the princess might take a long time. I took it down so I could look at it if I missed her.”
Then a young minister cut in.
“Your Majesty, perhaps the picture was never hanging there at all. I worry that Her Majesty the queen is now making trouble for herself.”
The queen said:
“I do not see anything wrong with looking at the picture and saying that the princess is the fairest in the world.”
At that, Brown Pleasde said:
“No. The rumor is that Her Majesty called the hunter after hearing that the princess was the fairest in the world.”
The queen said:
“Is that a rumor going around, or is that what you think?”
Brown Pleasde was startled and said:
“I merely wish for the present commotion to end as a commotion. The whole country is terribly divided.”
The king said:
“No, whether she spoke to a mirror or to a picture, what is there to divide over?”
“Your Majesty, it is not so simple. The story the people have accepted is, to put it simply, this: the princess left the palace to escape the queen; the queen heard from the mirror that the princess was the fairest in the world, became agitated, and called a hunter to find the princess; and the hunter came covered in blood and tried to deceive the queen by saying the princess had died, so that she would feel safe. Then, when the queen learned the princess was alive, she personally went to the hut and forced her to eat a poisoned apple.”
The queen, stunned, said:
“Feed her a poisoned apple?”
Then the princess said:
“She only cursed me by saying I would eat a poisoned apple. She did not feed me one. I am not someone who would eat it anyway.”
At that, all the ministers began murmuring.
“Your Majesty, testimony has come from the princess’s own mouth that the queen is a sorceress who casts curses. You must choose one of two things: punish the princess for lying, or punish the queen for sorcery.”
That night, the queen entered the king’s bedchamber. In tears, she said:
“My education has gone astray, so Your Majesty must not feel burdened. The princess is already of royal blood, so she must inherit the throne. All things flow as they must flow. Whether it falls on me or on the country, what must fall must fall. Tomorrow, I will receive poison.”
The next day, the king, his eyes swollen from crying, announced the decree ordering the queen to drink poison. The queen was deposed and sent to Pine Mountain, but people had gathered and surrounded every gate, shouting, so she could not enter. With no choice, the queen went to the private house of a maid and received the poison in the yard.
At Pine Mountain, the main gate finally collapsed, and people surged in and set everything on fire. In this way, not only the house but the apple orchard too was ruined. But it did not end with Pine Mountain. Because of the selfishness of minor and middle families who expected that if apple production fell, apple prices would rise worldwide, all the houses that had been centers of apple production became targets of attack in turn. At last, the four families that had been the centers of apple production fled the country, went to a distant country near the sea, and planted apple orchards again. A few years later, with the knowledge they possessed, delicious apples began to grow, and they started selling them under the name Sunnyport. Grandhill’s apples maintained high prices for a while, but at last they were pushed aside by Sunnyport, and even the name Apple Country disappeared. Having staked everything on apples, the country could not maintain its superiority in apples. It grew poorer and poorer, and finally fell, absorbed by a neighboring country. Zerenbulin II signed the abdication document in the year the princess turned twenty, and two months later, unable to overcome illness brought on by rage and grief, he closed his eyes.
Korean original: Grandhill Princess